Sunrise Tells Its Police Chief

Where To Assign New Vehicles

SUNRISE — City commissioners are telling the police chief how to run his department.

On Tuesday, they told Chief John Soldenwagner to assign three new unmarked police cars to the detective division instead of letting the chief decide where to put them.

The 3-1 vote marked one of the few times Soldenwagner's bosses have taken a decision out of the chief's hands.

Deputy Mayor Fran Klauber, who often rides with detectives, pushed for the amendment that requires the chief to give the new cars to detectives.

The chief declined to talk about the issue on Wednesday.

He told commissioners Tuesday that he had not yet decided where to put the new cars, which will run on regular gasoline and natural gas, a cheaper and environmentally cleaner alternative to gasoline.

In addition to the detective bureau, unmarked cars are also used in police administration and professional standards.

The city will spend $42,765 on a lease/purchase agreement for three Buick Centuries, the first unmarked cars bought by the department since 1991.

Commissioner Roger Wishner cast the only no vote, saying commissioners were setting a bad policy by not letting the chief review his needs and report back to commissioners with a plan for using the cars.

"I have the utmost confidence in you chief, whatever you do with these vehicles," Wishner said. He told his colleagues that "if we're going to set policy tonight then we need to look at all the vehicles" in the Police Department.